Edith Baumann
Edith Baumann Edith Honecker-Baumann | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 7 April 1973 | (aged 63)
Occupation(s) | Political activist Youth leader (FDJ) Party Central Committee member |
Political party | SAPD (1931–1933) SED (1946–1973) |
Spouse | |
Children | Erika Honecker (b. 1950) |
Edith Baumann (1 August 1909 – 7 April 1973) was a German politician.[1] She was a co-founder and official of the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend / FDJ), the youth organisation that after 1946 became the youth wing of East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands / SED). Between 1946 and her death she was a member of the country's powerful Party Central Committee.[2]
Sources sometimes identify her as Edith Honecker-Baumann. Between the late 1940s and early or mid-1950s, sources differing on both the dates of marriage and divorce (see below), she was married to
Life
Provenance and early years
Edith Baumann was born into a working-class family in
Between 1925 and 1929 she was employed as a typist by a pharmacist wholesale supplier: a succession of typing jobs followed. She joined the
Nazi Germany
The
Baumann was detained and tortured while in investigatory custody for more than a year, first in prison at Berlin-Moabit and then at the Barnimstrasse women's prison. She faced trial in December 1934 and was sentenced by the special "people's court" to three years in prison for preparing to commit high treason ("Vorbereitung zum Hochverrat"). In the event she was released in October 1936.[2] She remained in Berlin. Between 1936 and 1938 she was employed as a typist by a Berlin patent attorney. Between 1936 and 1945 she was employed as a book keeper at the company owned by the "Carbon By-products Association" ("Kohlenwertstoff-Verbände").[2]
Soviet occupation zone
The
Within the
German Democratic Republic
In October 1949 the
Under the
In 1947 Edith Baumann was a co-founder of the
Personal
Marriage
Discussion of Erich Honecker's private life was a constant taboo.
According to various sources, Erich Honecker married Edith Baumann in 1947.[2][3] That seems to have been the year in which, after only two years of marriage, his first wife, Charlotte Schanuel, fell ill and died.[6] Other sources assert that the marriage took place at the end of 1949, after Edith discovered she was pregnant with their daughter, Erika.[6]
Erich Honecker was three years younger than Edith Baumann. He was still married to Charlotte in the summer of 1947 when he and Edith travelled together to Moscow. They were already close colleagues through their FDJ and party work, and on the Moscow trip the relationship between the comrades took a new direction. Intimacy ensued. Looking back in 1990 Erich Honecker was measured in his recollections of what happened and how: "At that time I was badly in need of support. We often sat together, also at her home in Mühlenbeck. And she was an ace with the type writer."[n 1]. The later insights offered by Politburo comrade Gerhard Schürer (1921–2010), are also less than generous, though perhaps his directness is a little more striking to an English-language reader than to readers in other mainstream European languages: "I was always a bit baffled ... politically they were of course very well attuned to one another, but in such human terms ... Honecker was a fine looking young man with a good figure, warm eyes and beautiful hair: she came across as a much older, frumpy comrade.[n 2]
Whatever view Erich Honecker took of matters at the time or subsequently, for Edith their marriage was based on love.[6] However Klaus Herde, a close colleague of the young woman who later became Erich Honcker's third wife, has suggested that Honecker married Edith out of a sense not of love but of duty, when he realised she was pregnant.[6]
Erich and Edith Honecker's marriage ended in 1953 or 1955: again, sources differ.[3][2] However, since reunification, more information has emerged on what happened.[6][9]
Assuming that the marriage took place in December 1949, it was just a couple of weeks later that Erich Honecker led a delegation of the East German party to Moscow in order to attend celebrations of the seventieth birthday of the Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin. The delegation also included Margot Feist, the 22-year-old leader of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation. Honecker was fascinated by Feist "both because she was a pretty young girl and because she was very active in the party". Intimacy ensued. It is reported that Honecker attempted to conceal their affair, but he failed because almost every night he went directly to Feist's apartment. Edith did not acquiesce, however. For most purposes, by this time the most powerful German in East German politics was the General Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Walter Ulbricht. Ulbricht now received a letter from Baumann asking him to have a very firm word with his ambitious, philandering young comrade, her husband, saying "Erich never gets home before one in the morning, his head is starting to cave in and he fantasizes about the wildest stuff..."[n 3]
Walter Ulbricht was appalled by Honecker's affair. Unaware at this stage that news of his affair with Feist had reached Ulbricht, Honecker was summoned to visit the General Secretary at his weekend retreat north of Berlin. Baumann had written persuasively that Ulbricht should cut off her husband's lover from her important youth work ("aus der Jugendarbeit ausscheiden") and send her away from Berlin.[4] Feist's biographer, Ed Stuhler , believes that the extra-marital romance constituted a huge threat to the political careers of both lovers.[10] But old President Pieck took a more pragmatic view. Despite his declining health and diminishing involvement in day-to-day affairs, Pieck never lost the full confidence of Joseph Stalin.[11] In the judgement of Politburo member Gerhard Schürer it was largely down to Pieck that the ending of Erich and Edith Honecker's marriage ran its jagged course without erupting into scandal.[6] Margot Feist held on to her job and remained in Berlin. Whenever Feist's name was mentioned in Pieck's presence, he developed a twinkle in his eye.[4]
In the summer of 1952, the "unruly partnership" ("wilde Ehe") of comrades Honecker and Feist even came up in the Politburo. Under "Agenda Item 20" the two of them were authorized to take a holiday together in the Soviet Union, but the parties were also instructed to come up with a rapid clarification of their relationships. Honecker was at this point still sharing an apartment with his wife Edith and their daughter Erika, born in 1950. But now it was Margot who was visibly pregnant with Erich's daughter:[6] Sonja would be born at the beginning of December 1952.[12]
It was not until January 1955 that Edith Honecker-Baumann agreed to give her husband a divorce.
Death
Edith Baumann died in East Berlin on 7 April 1973. Erich Honecker led the mourning at her funeral.[6][13] The urn containing her ashes was placed in the section of the Berlin Main Cemetery reserved for political leaders and others highly honoured by the East German political establishment.[14]
Awards and honours
- 1955 Clara Zetkin Medal[15]
- 1955 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver[16]
- 1959 Banner of Labor[17]
- 1960 Banner of Labor[18]
- 1965 Patriotic Order of Merit in gold[2]
- 1969 Patriotic Order of Merit gold clasp[2]
In 1989 the East German postal service featured Edith Baumann on a postage stampStamps of Germany (DDR) 1989, MiNr 3222.jpg.
Notes
- ^ "At that time I was badly in need of support. We often sat together, also at her home in Mühlenbeck. And she was an ace with the type writer."
"Ich war damals sehr anlehnungsbedürftig. Wir haben oft zusammen gesessen, auch bei ihr zu Hause in Mühlenbeck. Außerdem konnte sie flott Schreibmaschine schreiben."[6] - ^ "I was always a bit baffled ... politically they were of course very well attuned to one another, but in such human terms ... Honecker was a fine looking young man with a good figure, warm eyes and beautiful hair: she came across as a much older, frumpy comrade."
"Ich habe mich immer ein bisschen gewundert .... weil politisch waren die natürlich ein erfahrenes Paar, aber so menschlich ... Honecker war ein junger hübscher Mann mit einer guten Figur, sie war eine ältlich wirkende Genossin."[6] - ^ "Erich never gets home before one in the morning, his head is starting to cave in and he fantasizes about the wildest stuff..."
"Erich kommt nie vor ein Uhr nachts nach Hause und phantasiert das wildeste Zeug ..."[6]
References
- ISBN 978-0-7876-4061-3. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Bernd-Rainer Barth; Helmut Müller-Enbergs. "Baumann, Edith (verh. Honecker-Baumann) * 1 August 1909; † 7 April 1973 Generalsekretärin der FDJ, Sekretärin des ZK der SED". Wer war wer in der DDR? (in German). Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- ^ a b c d Regina Haunhorst; Irmgard Zündorf. "Erich Honecker 1912–1994". Lebendiges Museum Online (in German). Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- ^ a b c "Gefährliche Liebschaft" (in German). Der Spiegel (online). 15 July 1996. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
- ASP: Women and Social Movements(subscription required)
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Ed Stuhler; Thomas Grimm, MDR (10 February 2011). "Privatleben: Margot und Erich Honecker". Originally transcript extracts from "Die Honeckers privat" (in German). Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR). Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
- ^ "Immer bereit – DDR Honecker" (in German). Der Spiegel (online). 3 October 1966. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
- ^ "Walter Ulbricht – das sind wir alle" (in German). Der Spiegel (online). 10 May 1971. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
- ^ Martin Sabrow (20 August 2012). "Der unterschätzte Diktator" (in German). Der Spiegel (online). Retrieved 14 April 2016.
- ISBN 978-3-453-64001-6.
- ^ Eric D. Weitz, Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997
- ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff (16 April 2007). "Die meistgehasste Frau der DDR". Die Welt (in German). Die Welt, Berlin. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
- ^ nokiland. "Honecker heiratet seine Stellvertreterin Edith" (in German). Reiner Maecker (DDR-center). Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ "Edith Baumann (1.8.1909-7.4.1973) ... Bildarchiv SAPMO-BArch Y10-1415/67". Die Urnengräber in der Ringmauer (in German). Förderkreis Erinnerungsstätte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung Berlin-Friedrichsfelde e.V. Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ Neues Deutschland, 8 March 1955, page 2
- ^ Neues Deutschland, 7 May 1955, page 2
- ^ Neues Deutschland, 2 August 1959, page 2
- ^ Neues Deutschland, 8 May 1960, page 2